Fitness and martial arts tips, tricks and information by an advanced health and fitness specialist.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Tai Chi Tuesday: Thoughts on Push Hands by Ian Sinclair

How important is push hands? According to Ian Sinclair, who wrote the article How Important is Push Hands? for Tai Chi Central, very important. Here is what he has to say in a recent article:

How essential, really, is push
hands? Can we not learn or advance in tai chi without it? Are we not
doing real tai chi without knowledge of push hands?

Push hands is a defining
characteristic of taijiquan. Along with qigong, forms and application
practice, push hands contributes to the physical, mental, spiritual and
psychological development of a taiji player. It is seen as a
continuation of the practical development that begins with the solo
routine and qigong.

Few schools teach tuishou to beginners.

Most schools have optional
tuishou classes so that students who do not wish to engage in the
practice are not required to do so. There is so much to be gained from
the solo practice that most student of taijiquan do very little if any
tuishou practice. Even among those who do, few approach the depth or
intensity of practice that is possible.

If you are seeking high level
martial skill in taiji, it is pretty safe to say that push hands is
essential. But push hands is useful even if your purpose for learning
taiji is more health and fitness related, or you practice as a means of
achieving peace of mind.

Martial arts in general are
often practised more for their benefits to mental and physical
well-being than for pure combat skill. The reasons for this are deep and
complex.

One thing that I tell my
students is that push hands - like sanshou, suaijiao, and fencing - is
an excellent form of biofeedback. If you want to know if your posture is
correct, or to know if you mind is clear, or to know if you are in
harmony with the universe then play push hands. If you lose your
balance, use force, or get knocked over, then you will know that you
have some work to do. push hands can teach you what your mistakes are
and help you to correct them, especially if you have a patient training
partner.

If you don't have the
opportunity to practice tuishou very often, then occasional practice
will inform your solo practice. You can take the lessons learned in push
hands and use them to refine your understanding of the forms and your
qigong practice.

My teacher once told me that he
doubted there were many high level qigong masters who were not also
martial artists. I think this may be because martial study is a very
efficient way of exposing the delusions, illusions and misunderstandings
of the ego.

Every thought carries an
emotion, every emotion affects the physical body. Refining these things
on our own is very difficult. It is like wearing a lamp on our foreheads
and looking for our shadow. Solo practice just doesn't give us an
objective point of view of ourselves the way push hands does.

There are many stages in push
hands practice. And there are many ways to approach it. Beginners should
practise in a co-operative and non competitive manner at least until
they understand the basics of listening and following. Later it can be
quite vigourous.